the broken | dallas winston

(4) the almost kiss

"You're such a bad liar," Mikey says laughing as we walk down the road together. I roll my eyes at him and punch his shoulder playfully.

"I'm telling the truth, Mikey," I say stuttering on my words here and there. We start laughing again and it takes us a second before we can walk again.

"I can't believe you like Dallas Winston!" He screams loudly as he holds his arms out. He starts cheering as he jogs around in circles before tripping over something which sent him flying to the ground. I laugh loudly as I lose my balance too and trip over his body that is sprawled out on the road.

"We're gonna get hit by a car, doofus!" I shout through laughs as I try and stand up but I fall right back down and lay on his chest. "Why did we ever get this drunk? Darry's gonna kill me!"

"I won't let him," He says as he stares over at me, our eyes locking. I don't know if it was the alcohol or if he really wants to do it but we're both getting closer to each other's lips. It was never like that between Mikey and I, we were always like brother and sister. Our lips are so close I can feel his hot breath tickling them. Just before they can touch, the sound of a car honking makes both of us jump to our feet.

"Stupid greasers!" Bob Sheldon yells out of his window, music blaring and people packed into the car.

"Screw you, Sheldon!" I yell as I stick my middle finger in the air with pride. Bob laughs at me before throwing a beer can at me and drives off. I start running after the blue mustang, yelling all kinds of curses and laughing as I do so. I turn to my right, expecting to see Mikey there doing it with me, but he's not.

I turn around and there he is, lying on the ground. His face bloody and bruised, glass sticking out of some of his body parts. He's not moving, he's not breathing. He's dead.

"Scarlett!"

I jolt awake breathing heavily as my heart races. I take a deep breath, trying to calm myself down after the dream I just had. I look around the room to see the entire gang is here to see me and Soda is standing over me with worried eyes. I smile a little as Lizzie and Avery rush over to see me, throwing their arms around me once they reach me.

"I'm so happy you're okay," Avery whispers to me as we all pull away from each other. I swallow the lump in my throat so I don't cry but it's hard. I'm staring at my two best friends who I also could have killed last night.

"Have you guys talked to Mikey's parents?" I whisper to them.

"No," Lizzie says. "I don't have the guts to right now, I don't wanna cry in front of them."

I nod my head in agreement, I know I can't look Mikey's parents in the face right now. I don't think I ever can. Avery leans over close to my ear.

"Do you guys remember the night Mikey and I came home so drunk we could barely stand up straight?" I ask the two girls who look at me confused. Mikey and I came home drunk a lot so I have to give more details. "The night of my birthday."

The two girls look at me shocked since they know about what happened on my birthday last year. They were the only two people I told about the almost kiss Mikey and I had.

"Yeah," Lizzie says with a small giggle. "That was a crazy night. I don't even know where I was half the night."

Darry scoffs from across the room, "Yeah that was the night you were throwin' up all over the bathroom."

I shyly smile and shrug my shoulders, "I was just havin' fun."

"Why are you asking about that night?" Avery asks as she sits down next to me on my bed, Lizzie doing to same.

"I had a dream about it," I whisper to them, making them look at me confused.

"Oh don't tell me-"

"No!" I say quickly, cutting Avery off before she can expose me to the gang. They would never stop talking about it if they knew what almost happened that night.

"It wasn't anything fun," I mumble as Soda sits next to me and wraps an arm around my shoulder. "It was rough."

Avery and Lizzie rub my arm to comfort me. I just weakly smile at them. I know they all know I'm hurting more than I'm showing but that's just how I am. I'm broken without Mikey but I won't show them that part of me.

I look up and make eye contact with Dallas, who is leaning against the door just like he was yesterday. Except this time he has a black eye. I smile to myself knowing he actually did went out to find Bob last night, he really does care.

"Nice black eye," I say to Dally with a small smirk. He smirks back but he doesn't say anything, he doesn't have to. He knows that I know where he went, there was no need for talking.

"Doctor said you can go home today," Pony says as he ruffles up my hair, making me groan in annoyance. I slap his arm away, making him laugh loudly.

"Thank god," I say as I roll my eyes. "Hospitals are boring. I wanna smoke."

"I told you to stop smoking, Scar," Darry scolds but all I do is roll my eyes in response. He's been trying to make me quit for at least a year, I still haven't quit.

"Yeah yeah, I'll quit," I mumble even though we all know I won't quit probably ever. Smoking calms my nerves and forces my mind to stop thinking. When you don't really open up on your feelings, you gotta deal with it in your mind. Smoking is really my only escape from myself.

"You feelin' alright, kid?" Two asks from the chair in my room.

I smile with a nod even though I feel lost without my best friend, "Yeah, I'm good."